Land Prices At All-Time High

The median residential land price rose by 2.6% during the June 2016 quarter, reaching an all-time high of $237,535, according to the HIA-CoreLogic Residential Land Report with Real Estate Plumpton strong.

“Housing affordability has deteriorated across several key markets and the ongoing rise in land prices is proving very challenging,” says Shane Garrett, senior economist at the Housing Industry Association.

“With market supply having fallen further over the past year, policy makers need to look very carefully at ways of bringing about more sustainable outcomes in residential land supply.

“This will inevitably involve tackling issues around the pace of land release, the bottlenecks in the planning process and the excessive burden of taxation.”

Treasurer To Attack House Costs

Treasurer Scott Morrison says the cost of buying a home will be a major policy focus for the Federal Government over its three-year term.

Morrison wants to reform planning laws and increase housing supply to help push house prices down.

Director of Deloitte Access Economics, Chris Richardson, saysthat between now and the end of 2018, too many apartments will be built for the number of likely buyers.

“For inner-city apartments in the big state capitals, prices by the end of 2018 will likely be 15% lower than they are today, so there is some relief coming but it’s very specific,” he says.